IT MIGHT be six years since we last reported on it but the Beast of Rivacre is alive and well.

Last week, after a London man was attacked by a panther-like creature in his garden, we recalled the stories we carried about a similar animal being seen by several people over a number of years in Rivacre Valley.

And we asked if anyone had any further sightings to tell us about.

One woman who got in touch believes not one but two big cats are stalking Ellesmere Port.

The Rivacre resident says she's seen a panther-like creature and, in a separate incident, a lynx.

She contacted the Pioneer about her encounters with the animals, which some zoologists call Alien Big Cats (ABCs) because they are alien to Britain.

Her first encounter came with the panther, dubbed the Beast of Rivacre, while she was walking her greyhounds 10 years ago.

'We were opposite what is known as Foxfields on a frosty night. I let the dogs off and they gave chase.

'The panther ran off. I've never been there again,' said the woman, who won't be identified.

About a year later she was walking her dogs down near the Vaux-hall Motors plant when a different creature made an appearance.

She said: 'We were walking down the path and a big lynx came right out in front of me, and stared at us before walking off. I ran straight home.'

The woman said she has also seen the animal sitting in a neighbour's oak tree in The Breck, Rivacre, and explained: 'It was eyeing her dog up.

'The animal was definitely a lynx. It was grey, mottled, with tassled hair at the end of its ears. It was also seen in another neighbour's garden.

'And my daughter spoke to a woman in Hillside Drive a few days later who said her cat was grabbed by a lynx, but the dog ran out and the lynx dropped the cat.'

Robert Hughes of Veronica Way, Little Sutton, told us he had spotted the black panther while walking his dog near Rivacre Brook one day last year.

He said: 'It was very big - about five feet long - and looked as if it was stalking something. Luckily, I don't think it saw me!